Alligator Gar(Atractosteus spatula)The alligator gar is a much misunderstood sport-fish in America, it being
the second largest freshwater fish here. There are very little true things
that are in print about these great fish -
they are a very long lived fish, with no natural predators except man.
They grow very fast in the first 1 to 2 years being able to obtain weights
up to 20 lbs the first year, after this spurt of growth they slow down and
grow all the rest of their life,
with life spans being upwards of 75 years.
They will feed on anything from birds, to fish with anything in between
being taken.
They are at the top of the food chain in their environment, and they are
also very fast,
hunting type fish, not a lay in wait type of fish.
They have disappeared from a lot of their former habitats, not due to
over-fishing,
but mostly due to habitat changes; as in the Arkansas River, which is no
longer a slow natural stream, but a river that has seen the lock and dam
system arrive, and the gar are no longer able to tolerate the colder
waters. The dam building here in Texas, as in Lake Livingston and Sam
Rayburn, has helped the gar to multiply, especially in Lake Livingston
where they have the Trinity River to migrate up stream during the spring
and sinter floods.
On a normal day here in Texas we will see an average of 20 to 100 gar turn
in the surface.
The gar obtain 200+ lbs here quite often with
numerous fish being taken above 100 lbs weekly.
The maximum size of this giant is probably around 400 lbs -
Kirk's biggest Alligator Gar weighed 365 lbs and it was 9 ft 6 in long !IGFA All-tackle
World Record:
126.55 kg / 279 lb 0 oz - Rio Grande, Texas, USA